Sunday, March 12, 2017
VIDEO: Villanova Basketball releases new renderings of Finneran Pavilion
A Look at Villanova’s Amazing Basketball Facility and 2016-17 Footwear
Assuming most of you signed up to be a Finneran Pavilion Insider, you received an email tonight with a fresh video of the renderings that were released at a private donor event in New York City.
In typical Villanova fashion, one of those links in the email did not work. But the video on twitter does...
Here are the highlights that we see, but let us know if you see anything different. Also make sure to check out the FAQ portion of the Finneran Pavilion website which has been updated with in-depth detail:
- The renovated walkway to the main entrance, with Villanova Athletics monuments (previously released), but also with a new overhead shot.
- The reconfigured space behind the current student section, which will now be two floors with improved concessions and seating space. Of note, the entrace to the arena appears to be on the second floor, and the concourse will be 360 degrees throughout the building.
- Several of the aforementioned lounges - which were told are meant to serve events, VIPs, and recruiting. A Hall of Fame exhibit will also be opened, as will the One Court Club which will house the 2016 Final Four floor.
- A new locker room inside the Pavilion.
- Renovated seating throughout note that the lower level of the sidelines appear to have chairbacks, while the upper level appears to have bleacher seating.
- The current student section appears to be renovated into two separate levels. The students will be on both baselines, per the FAQ. My read is that it reduces the wall of students in the South end, and displaces the rest to the lower end of the North side.
My reaction:
Its really exactly what I expected given how close it is to the details I posted back in October. Capacity was never likely to increase, and gameday experience plus amenities, concessions, etc. were always going to be the priority.
I must say, the renderings look beautiful. The added cost of tickets, clubs, concessions, merchandise, etc. will bring in more money and make going to the games a heck of a lot more fun. But it does feel a bit rushed, and de-prioritized when looking at other projects around campus. This line was telling:
As with all projects on campus, cost is a significant consideration. Increasing seating capacity was considered, but a full teardown and rebuild to add seating would cost well over $125 million. With all of the other University projects currently being undertaken, borrowing for this project is not feasible. Therefore, the project needs to be funded entirely by donor support. While we have made significant progress toward our $60 million goal, we are still actively fundraising for the project.
Its something we know, but it still hurts. This is the flagship sport that the school has stated drives notoriety. But it will likely always come secondary to academics and the arts at villanova. this isnt ohio state or alabama. h**l, it isnt even Notre Dame. Its Villanova. It hurts to say, but the administration just cant see - or refuses to acknowledge - the revenue and visibility that sports drive in America.
A lot of this has to do with Bill Finnerans donation and the timeline associated with it. I think if Villanova could have raised $125 million and done this right, they would have. But theyre struggling to bring in $60M even with Finneran covering a third of it. Theres your story.
My biggest gripe? Spending $60 million and still leaving some fans with bleacher seating in the upper tank. Season ticket holders up there wont be happy with that and the increased cost of seating, I bet.
Villanova has shown the ability to build things beautifully in recent years and I have no doubt this building will be gorgeous when completed. Its just tough to know that there could have been more.
Source: http://www.vuhoops.com/villanova-basketball/2017/3/8/14864836/villanova-basketball-finneran-pavilion-video-renderings
Sister Sledge star Joni Sledge dies aged 60
JONI SLEDGE (of Sister Sledge) 2009 solo album "Tru"
Joni Sledge, who recorded the dance anthem We Are Family with her three sisters, has died aged 60.
Sledge was discovered dead at her home in Phoenix, Arizona, by a friend on Friday.
The band"s publicist, Biff Warren, said a cause of death has not been established and that Sledge had not been ill.
The family said in a statement: "On yesterday, numbness fell upon our family. We welcome your prayers as we weep the loss of our sister, mother, aunt, niece and cousin."
Sledge and her sisters Debbie, Kim and Kathy formed Sister Sledge in 1971, and had their breakout success with the album We Are Family in 1979.
The title track was an infectious song that celebrated their familial connection with the refrain: "We are family, I got all my sisters with me."
The song, which sold more than a million copies, was nominated for a Grammy and became an anthem of unity and women"s empowerment.
Other hits on the album included Lost In Music, Thinking Of You and He"s The Greatest Dancer.
The songs were co-written and produced by Chic star Nile Rodgers, who paid tribute to Joni.
He tweeted his condolences to the family and added: "We did something pretty amazing together."
La Toya Jackson also paid tribute on Twitter while TV Star Ru Paul tweeted "Sister Sledge Forever".
Although Sister Sledge reached their peak in the US in the late 1970s their biggest UK hit came in 1985.
Frankie stayed at number one for four weeks and was one of the biggest selling songs of the year.
When sister Kathy left for a solo career in 1989, the remaining members continued to perform and record.
Several of their songs were re-released in the UK in the early 1990s and became hits all over again and, in 2015, they performed for Pope Francis.
They last performed together in concert in october.
joni Sledge is survived by a son.
Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&ct2=us&usg=AFQjCNE8U1GxI90PDh28qp0relWzJgEgeg&clid=c3a7d30bb8a4878e06b80cf16b898331&ei=uzbFWMCmCJXRpweV1p64AQ&url=https://www.964eagle.co.uk/news/showbiz/2244136/sister-sledge-star-joni-sledge-dies-aged-60/
Saturday, March 11, 2017
What"s Next For South Korea After Ousting Its President
South Korea police clash with protesters - BBC News
South Korean demonstrators shoot off firecrackers in Seoul on March 11, 2017 to celebrate the impeachment of Park Geun-Hye during a candlelit rally demanding the arrest of the ousted president. Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
toggle caption Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty ImagesSouth Korean demonstrators shoot off firecrackers in Seoul on March 11, 2017 to celebrate the impeachment of Park Geun-Hye during a candlelit rally demanding the arrest of the ousted president.
Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty ImagesFor so many Saturdays, throngs of South Koreans showed up on the streets of central Seoul to rally for the removal of their president, Park Geun-hye. This Saturday evening, they showed up to celebrate: the nation"s highest court upheld the National Assembly"s impeachment of the president, removing her from office and immediately stripping her of power.
Jubilant Koreans sang patriotic songs and fireworks went off in the skies. The nation"s placeholder government leaders are calling for calm, unity and a smooth transition.
"The Korean Government has been carrying out state affairs stably, with all ministries and agencies functioning as usual under the leadership of the acting president," said government spokesman Song Sookeun, in a statement.
But not everyone in South Korea is pleased. While public opinion polls showed three out of four South Koreans supported the president"s ouster over her alleged involvement in the nation"s largest-ever political corruption scandal, there remains a vocal minority of Park"s supporters who want to "impeach the impeachment" and reacted violently to the court"s decision. Three senior citizens have died in post-impeachment demonstrations this weekend, one of them after a speaker fell off the top of a bus and onto his head.
Park remains in the presidential Blue House, and has yet to make a statement about her removal. Her critics worry her silence so far is emboldening supporters who are refusing to accept the impeachment decision by the court. A spokesman for Park says part of the reason she hasn"t moved out is because her private residence "is currently under construction for security and other matters."
But the next steps for South Korea are clear. The country will hold a snap election in two months, as mandated by law, and a compressed contest for leadership will soon get under way. After nearly a decade of conservatives in charge here, "It"s really the liberals race to lose," says John Delury, an international relations professor at Seoul"s Yonsei University.
One of the biggest differences between conservatives and liberals in South Korea is how they approach North Korea, a particularly big question of late following the assassination by nerve gas of regime family member Kim Jong Nam, and the test-firing of four missiles toward Japan, on Monday.
Traditionally, South Korea"s liberals are more interested in engagement with the North and drawing them out, a fundamentally different approach than what the conservatives have been doing, which has increasingly frozen out Pyongyang.
But North Korea isn"t the only challenge ahead. There"s uncertainty in the overall region, as relations with Japan aren"t great over history and territorial issues, relations with China are tense because Korea is installing a controversial U.S. missile defense system. And there"s unease about where Northeast Asia stands with Washington. Despite all the questions, Delury argues the real turmoil was avoided: Things would have been far more unstable had Park gotten re-instated by the court.
"People were truly concerned about chaos, martial law, these kinds of scenarios given that an overwhelming majority of south koreans wanted this president to go and the Assembly had decided she should go," Delury says.
Park will go. But so far, she has yet to leave the building.
Jihye Lee contributed to this story.
Source: http://www.npr.org/2017/03/11/519807707/what-s-next-for-south-korea-after-it-ousted-its-president
Amal Clooney"s Baby Bump Isn"t Really as Exciting as Her Badass Job
Amal Clooney Urges The U.N. To Investigate ISIS | TIME
Ron Asadorian/Splash NewsIn today"s installment of "Stars: They"re just like us!" Even celebrities have a hard time being taken seriously at work when they"re pregnant, as Amal Clooney recently discovered. The extremely successful and accomplished human rights lawyer gave a stirring and importantspeech at the UN about ISIS, and all anybody seemed to care about was her baby bump. Sigh.
Joined by her client,ISIS survivor and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Nadia Murad,Clooney delivered an impassioned plea to the UN to investigate the horrifying crimes committed by ISIS, including rape, murder and forced conversions.
"Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen: what is shocking here is not just the brutality of ISIS but how long those who know about it can remain passive," she said. "If we do not change course, history will judge us, and there will be no excuse for our failure to act. We cannot say that ISIS crimes were not serious enough; we cannot say that the interests of powerful states stood in the way; or that these crimes are too hard to prove. Thats why I am asking you today: to stand up for justice."
More from CafeMom: Amal Clooney Is Taking ISIS to Court for Genocide & She Needs You to Pay Attention
Powerful words. (The full transcript of her speech can be read here.)
Unfortunately, her message was overshadowed by the fact that she happens to be carrying her husband George Clooney"s twins, and that she"s beginning to physically display that fact. Just check out this tweet from Time:
Twitter/TIME
Ouch, seriously?! Talk about missing the point. This ridiculously reductive treatment of life-or-death issues would be laughable if it wasn"t actually sad. I can only imagine the epic face palm Amal Clooney did when she saw this headline. And it"s especially insulting that they used the term "show off" -- as if this very significant professional moment was somehow nothing more than a display of expecting exhibitionism. Not that she merely showed her bump off, of course -- according to the headline of the Motto article Time linked to in its tweet, she also "rocked" it: "amal clooney rocks the Baby Bump Ahead of U.N. Speech."
Ron Asadorian/Splash News
It should be noted here that Time did update its headline to Amal Clooney Addresses United Nations on ISIS, but not before a whole lot of people saw the original and got understandably extremely irritated. Aren"t we past this kind of thing yet? Will we ever be?!
More from CafeMom: Amal & George Clooney Are Expecting Twins This Summer
The fact that this is the reaction Clooney got to one of her first public appearances since announcing her pregnancy isn"t surprising, but ... come on. Yes, Clooney is a celebrity, but not for the reasons most celebrities are. She"s not a performer; she"s married to one. Her fame, before her famous marriage, was because of her humanitarian work, not her red carpet savvy or love life. Is it really fair to give this woman and soon-to-be-mother the tabloid treatment just because she married into the Hollywood scene?
It would have been one thing if Clooney had been out shopping for baby clothes or having lunch with a friend or taking a yoga class. Then, sure, talk about how much her baby bump rocks all you want. I"m sure that"s the kind of thing you brace yourself for when you marry a huge star. But the woman was talking to the U.N. about ISIS and genocide.
At the very least, people are now paying attention to the fact that the speech happened at all. But let"s hope the next time Amal Clooney speaks, there"s a lot more listening ... and a lot less bump-watching.
Source: http://thestir.cafemom.com/celebrity_moms/203541/Amal_Clooney_baby_bump_UN?ct%3Dpiping_hot_7
Patriots lose cornerback Logan Ryan to Titans
Logan Ryan Reportedly Agrees To Sign With Titans
The New England Patriots continued to remake their roster Friday, acquiring wide receiver Brandin Cooks and defensive end Kony Ealy in a pair of trades while losing four players to free agency.
The Patriots gave up their first- and third-round picks in the Aprildraft to obtain Cooks, who played his first three seasons with the New Orleans Saints. The 23-year-old Cooks caught 78 passes for 1,173 yards and eight touchdowns last season for New Orleans, and was similarly productive in 2015.
New England received a fourth-round pick as part of the trade.
Earlier Friday, the Patriots sent their second-round draft pick to Carolina for defensive end Kony Ealy and the Panthers third-round pick. New Englands pick was No. 64 overall, while Carolinas pick was No. 72.
Ealy had three sacks in the Super Bowl against Denver two years ago, but struggled to build on that success last season and never developed into the dominant pass rusher the team hoped he would become.
He became expendable when the Panthers agreed to terms with Julius Peppers earlier in the day. But Ealy could have value for New England, which is looking to replace the production of Chris Long. Long, who just completed the one-year deal he signed with the Patriots, recently announced his intention to sign elsewhere.
Meanwhile, cornerback Logan Ryan, tight end Martellus Bennett, and linebackers Jabaal Sheard and Barkevious Mingo all found new teams.
Bennett, who turned 30 on Friday, signed with the Green Bay Packers. He had 55 receptions for 701 yards and seven touchdowns in his only season with the patriots.
ryan signed a multiyear deal late Thursday night with the Tennessee Titans. He will earn $30 million through the next three seasons, according to the NFL Network.
The 26-year-old cornerback was selected in the third round in 2013 and had a successful four years with the Patriots. Ryan developed into a solid No. 2 cornerback opposite of Malcolm Butler over the last two seasons. This past year he moved inside to the slot, and finished with two interceptions and 11 passes defensed.
Sheard and Mingo both signed with the Colts. Both players began their NFL careers with Cleveland before joining the Patriots Sheard in 2015, Mingo in 2016.
PATRIOTS BACKUP quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo said goodbye to Boston on Friday morning.
Or did he?
Garoppolo, the subject of trade rumors involving Cleveland, had a post on his certified Instagram account of himself holding the Vince Lombardi trophy following New Englands recent Super Bowl win with the message So grateful for my time in New England. Peace out Boston.
Although the Patriots have denied that Garoppolo who made two starts in place of the suspended Tom Brady last season will be traded, that hasnt stopped speculation he could end up with the Browns.
Cleveland, after going 2-14 this season, holds the top pick in the upcoming draft as well as the 12th overall selection. The Browns have been stockpiling draft picks, and the Patriots no longer have a pick in the first two rounds.
ESPNs Adam Schefter reported that Garoppolos account had been hacked and the post was a hoax. The Instagram post since has been deleted.
Source: http://www.centralmaine.com/2017/03/10/patriots-lose-cornerback-logan-ryan-to-titans/
South Korea expert interrupted by children on BBC World News goes viral
South Korea Court Upholds Impeachment of President Park
Working from home when children are at large can be perilous that vital call interrupted by a screaming baby, a toddler scattering crucial documents, the teenager pumping up the volume as a deadline looms.
But such challenges are small fry compared with what Robert E Kelly, an academic based at a South Korean university, had to endure as he tried to broadcast to the world on matters of global importance.
Kelly was live on BBC World News talking about the south korean president being forced out of office when the door of his office was swung open by a little girl in a bright yellow jumper and spectacles. She jauntily crossed the room as Kelly tried to explain what it all meant for the wider region.
The BBC presenter warned the interviewee that he was no longer alone and Kelly, still staring fixedly into the camera, tried to press on while gently pushing the girl away from him.
Worse was to come.
In the background with perfect comic timing a second youngster, this one a baby, made an even more dramatic appearance, wheeling him or herself on to the stage in a walker. Still Kelly carried on, turning his attention to how North Korea might react to the end of Park Geun-hyes term.
Cue a panicked woman who slid into the room, looked towards the camera with alarm and set about extracting both children from the office. Kelly apologised as the baby was wheeled out and the girl was dragged unceremoniously off stage.
The woman crawled back, shut the the door and Kelly, an associate professor of international relations at Pusan National University, again tried to think about North Korea rather than the dangers of the home office invasion.
Presenter James Menendez tweeted: Hard to keep a straight face and: It was the desperate reach for the door at the end that nearly did it for me ...
Later he added: Having watched it back, all credit to @Robert_E_Kelly for keeping it going. Come back to @bbcworld soon, with or without your lovely family!
And Kellys own response on Twitter displayed a touching optimism about his chances of maintaining a quiet life. He asked: Is this kinda thing that goes viral and gets weird?
Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&ct2=us&usg=AFQjCNGAIra0ZcRZXIreyOEnDcAA5Whc5A&clid=c3a7d30bb8a4878e06b80cf16b898331&cid=52779415831621&ei=FzbEWIDiCcH-3QHC6Y2oAQ&url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/mar/10/south-korea-expert-interrupted-baby-toddler-live-tv-viral
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